Dolphins’ Flores gives blunt assessment on Tua’s start. And why Malcolm Perry played
After watching the tape, Miami Dolphins coach Brian Flores had a brief but succinct assessment of Tua Tagovailoa’s first NFL start:
“Some good plays, some bad plays,” he said. “A lot of things we can get fixed. First time out, some good, some bad. Hopefully we see some improvement next week.”
In his starting debut — a win against the Los Angeles Rams — Tagovailoa was 12 for 22 for 93 yards, with one touchdown, one fumble and an 80.3 passer rating. But four passes were dropped.
“You’ve got to ask yourself the question as you sit there as a Miami Dolphin executive, and as a Miami Dolphins coach, is Tua better than [Ohio State quarterback] Justin Fields, because you’re going to end up with a top five pick [with Houston’s first-rounder],” former Cleveland Browns general manager Mike Lombardi said on VSiLive. “Is Tua better than the North Dakota State quarterback [Trey Lance]? You’ve got to ask yourself those questions and generate honest answers, or else your franchise is going to be stuck in time. ... Is he good enough to win a Super Bowl? I think that’s the answer they need to get answered with Tua.
“Tua was nice. He throws a 5-yard completion and Scott Hanson on the Red Zone [channel] was going absolutely berserk like he just saw the Red Sea parted. I mean seriously, the guy threw a high school play, and he completed it. That’s not why you draft the guy with the [fifth] pick overall. You want to see unique talent, and the way [Los Angeles Chargers rookie] Justin Herbert plays, even in a loss, that’s unique talent. The way [Cincinnati Bengals rookie] Joe Burrow has played in games, as rookies, that’s unique talent.”
POSITION NOTES
Some notes at other positions from Sunday’s game:
▪ Offensive line: The unit graded out very well in pass blocking, per Pro Football Focus. Left guard Ereck Flowers allowed the only sack.
Right tackle Robert Hunt allowed one quarterback hit and right guard Solomon Kindley permitted one quarterback hurry. Center Ted Karras and left tackle Jesse Davis relinquished no sacks, hits or hurries, and Davis was Miami’s highest-graded player on offense.
▪ Tight end: Durham Smythe played 32 snaps, Mike Gesicki 28 and Adam Shaheen 16. PFF said Smythe was the best of the group.
▪ Running back: Sunday represented the biggest disparity in snaps, with Myles Gaskin getting 43 and Matt Breida 8.
▪ Wide receiver: Malcolm Perry was active for the first time all season and played seven snaps. Lynn Bowden Jr. missed two practices last week because of the birth of his child and wasn’t active for the game, but Flores said Perry played because he “practiced well. We want to give him an opportunity and thought he played well in his limited snaps.”
The other receiver snaps: Preston Williams played 44 of Miami’s 49 snaps on offense, DeVante Parker 29, Isaiah Ford 17, Jakeem Grant 16 and Mack Hollins 2.
▪ Defensive line: Emmanuel Ogbah played 69 of Miami’s whopping 95 defensive snaps, Zach Sieler 65, Christian Wilkins 58, Raekwon Davis 50 and Benito Jones 12. PFF graded Ogbah the best of that group.
▪ Linebacker: Kyle Van Noy played the most (90 of 95 snaps), Jerome Baker 75, Andrew Van Ginkel 46, Shaq Lawson 45, Elandon Roberts 19, Kamu Grugier-Hill 17 and Sam Eguavoen 7.
PFF rated Eguavoen and Van Ginkel the first and third ranked players overall on defense, with second Eric Rowe second.
▪ Safeties: Bobby McCain played 95, Rowe 87 and Brandon Jones 39.
▪ Cornerback: Like McCain, Xavien Howard played all 95 snaps, with Byron Jones playing 88, Nik Needham 66, Tae Hayes 15 and Noah Igbinoghene 7 (when Jones missed some snaps with cramping).
After four consecutive exceptional games, Howard struggled, allowing 7 of 10 passes in his coverage area to be caught for 84 yards, six first downs and a touchdown.
Jones allowed 5 of 7 to be caught for 45 yards, and Needham permitted 4 of 8 for 50.
NOTABLE
▪ Two Arizona Cardinals players tested positive for COVID-19 during their bye week last week, but the team practiced Monday in advance of Sunday’s game against the Dolphins, and coach Kliff Kingsbury said there’s no indication that the virus has spread inside his team.
“I don’t see this being a problem,” Kingsbury said. He said contact tracing showed limited interaction with the two who tested positive. But he added: “You never know.”
▪ Sunday’s game featured the biggest yardage differential for a losing team since a 2002 game. The Rams outgained Miami, 471-145.
Before Sunday, the fewest yards gained this season by a team scoring 28 points in a game was 271 yards. The stats “felt like we got dominated, but I didn’t feel like that during the game,” Flores said.
▪ Before Jakeem Grant did it Sunday, the last time an NFL player had a punt return of at least 88 yards and a kickoff return of at least 45 yards in the same game was Baltimore’s Lamont Brightful in 2002.
▪ The Dolphins rank No. 1 in the NFL in points allowed per game at 18.6, but Flores said, “I’m very leery on statistics right now,” citing the misleading yards disparity on Sunday.
▪ Flores declined to say whether left tackle Austin Jackson — who is eligible to come off injured reserve — is close to returning from a foot injury.
“He’s making improvement,” Flores said. “A couple more rehabs before we make a decision on” when he will begin practicing.
This story was originally published November 2, 2020 at 2:11 PM.
